Eliot Ness

Eliot Ness (19 April 1903-16 May 1957) was an American Bureau of Prohibition agent from Chicago who famously led a team of agents known as "The Untouchables" in a crusade against Al Capone's Chicago Outfit gang during Prohibition. In 1931, Capone was sentenced to 11 years in prison due to the efforts of the team.

Biography
Eliot Ness was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1903, the son of Norwegian immigrant bakery owners. He graduated from the University of Chicago in 1925 and became an investigator for the Retail Credit Company of Atlanta in Chicago, conducting background checks for the purpose of credit information. Ness joined the Treasury Department in 1926 and came to work with the 1,000-strong Bureau of Prohibition in Chicago, and, in March 1930, he was assigned to work in conjunction with the CPD to enforce Prohibition and shut down Al Capone and his Chicago Outfit's bootlegging operations. Ness' first liquor raid was a failure, as the police source was misinformed about a shipment from Canada; while Ness and the police were expecting to find Canadian whiskey, they instead found umbrellas. Ness came to believe that the CPD was corrupt, so he approached the incorruptible veteran policeman Jimmy Malone for help with forming a team of incorruptible policemen to lead the fight against Capone. Ness was encouraged to do so by the mother of a girl who was accidentally killed in the Outfit's bombing of a Lake Shore Drive laundromat which refused to buy the gang's liquor.

Hunt for Capone
Ultimately, Ness and Malone recruited crack police recruit George Stone and Treasury Department accountant Oscar Wallace onto their team, and they had their first victory when they shut down Vincent Candella's liquor cache in the back of the US Post Office. Ness' team gained the nickname "The Untouchables" when Ness publicly refused Alderman John O'Shea's bribes, and O'Shea criticzied Ness for thinking that he was "untouchable". They later took part in a joint operation with the RCMP on the Montana-Canada border, where they ambushed a group of Chicago Outfit gunmen as they waited for the arrival of a whiskey shipment; they captured Outfit bookkeeper George Moretti, who was coaxed into cooperating with the group's investigation. Wallace proposed that they investigate Capone's federal income tax evasion, and Moretti proved willing to decode Capone's ledger. However, Wallace and Moretti were shot dead in the service elevator of the Chicago police station by Outfit hitman Frank Nitti, and Nitti wrote "touchable" on the elevator's walls with their blood, warning Ness that Capone had powerful connections. Ness had his family go into hiding as he continued the crusade against Capone, and he made a scene at the Lexington Hotel when he engaged in a shouting match with Capone about his friend's death and punched Capone's bodyguard Albert Munno in the nose before Malone escorted Ness out of the hotel.

Wallace's death and district attorney Robert E. Crowe's intention to drop the case due to lack of witnesses initially convinced Ness that their cause was lost, but Malone convinced him to stall Crowe as he dug up more information. Ultimately, Malone succeeded in obtaining information on Capone's chief bookkeeper, Walter Payne, who would be returning to Chicago via train after a brief period of hiding during Capone's subpoena. However, Malone was gunned down at his 1634 Racine Avenue apartment by Nitti, and Ness and Stone found Malone dying in his kitchen when they arrived to meet with him. Malone gave Ness the train schedule before asking him what he was prepared to do in order to take down Capone, and Malone's death and last words invigorated Ness to continue his crusade.

Ness and Stone then headed to Union Station to ambush Payne and his entourage. As Ness helped a woman bring her baby's carriage up the steps of the station, he noticed Payne and his entourage walk down the stairs, and he was recognized by Munno, who wore a bandage on his nose. Before Munno could draw his gun, Ness drew a shotgun and blasted him, starting a bloody shootout in which all of the mobsters and a few off-duty US Navy sailors were killed. Ness succeeded in killing Outfit hitman Lorenzo Galea as he held Payne hostage, and he convinced Payne to cooperate in the trial. During the ensuing trial, Crowe noticed that Capone was smiling and not taking the trial seriously, and grew suspicious of him. Ness then noticed that Nitti was packing a gun in his coat while he was speaking with Capone, and Ness called the bailiff and asked him to escort Nitti outside and confiscate his gun. Ness followed the bailiff and Nitti outside, where Nitti was forced to take off his coat and empty his pockets. Nitti shocked Ness and the bailiff by showing them a gun permit signed by Mayor William Hale Thompson, and the bailiff insisted that Ness had to give Nitti his gun back. However, as Ness used Nitti's matches to light a cigarette, he noticed "1634 Racine" written on the matchbook, and he realized that Nitti was Malone's killer. A nervous Nitti shot the bailiff and fled, leaving behind his coat. Stone discovered that Nitti's coat contained a list of the jurors and a number of bribe payments made to them, so Ness presented Judge James Herbert Wilkerson with the list. Wilkerson said that the list of bribes was not admissable as evidence, so Ness lied and told him that his name was on Capone's ledger of payments made to corrupt politicians, convincing Judge Wilkerson to switch the bribed jury to a divorce trial next door. Capone's lawyer decided that, with a clean jury, Capone would be convicted of his crimes, so he withdrew the plea of "not guilty" and entered a "guilty" plea to reduce Capone's sentence. Capone lashed out at the judge, his lawyer, and Ness, saying that he was nothing but "a lot of talk with a badge". Ness then approached Capone and shared Malone's advice, telling him not to stop fighting until the fight was done, and ending his confrontation with Malone's catchphrase "Here endeth the lesson."

Later career
In 1932, Ness became Chief Investigator of the Bureau of Prohibition in Chicago, and, after Prohibition's end in 1933, he became Safety Director of Cleveland and declared war on the Cleveland crime family under Angelo Lonardo. In 1938, he and his wife Edna divorced, and his career in Cleveland withered gradually, as his critics targeted his divorce, his high-profile social drinking, and his attempted cover-up of his own drunk driving incident. In 1942, he moved to Washington DC with his second wife to work for the federal government, battling prostitution in the city. In 1944, he became chairman of the Diebold Corporation, and he unsuccessfully ran for Mayor of Cleveland in 1947 and was expelled from Diebold in 1951. He went on to become a bookstore clerk, and a wholesaler of electronic parts and frozen hamburgers. He died nearly penniless from a heart attack at the age of 54 in Coudersport, Pennsylvania 1957.